This is a king whom Paris Hilton (a major political figure in Los Angeles at the time) makes a point to walk over to chat with during a timeout ...and then leans over to laugh at a joke by — not a forced laugh, I have it on good authority that it was a funny joke — later on in the game.

The Many Ways The Media Gets Around Saying [Groin] By Kyle Wagner [FiveThirtyEight] It’s the oldest laugh in sports: Some poor schmoe takes a sports ball to the crotch, keels over and, once we’re reasonably sure no lasting damage has been done, the TV announcers deadpan some dad jokes while the camera pans around to giggling teammates. It’s as much a familiar sports yuk as other not-all-that-uncommon oddities, like a field player on the mound or the fat guy touchdown, only with funnier GIFs. At least, that’s how things work when the hit comes in a relatively low-stakes setting. But what happens when the stakes are raised? And just as important, when reporters are forced to write about sportsmen kicking each other in the nuts, what do they write? This week has provided some answers.
posted by Fizz
on May 31, 2016 -
48 comments

This NBA season was overtaken by Stephen "Steph" Curry. After winning it all last season, this year he led the Golden State Warriors to the best regular-season record in the history of the league. Rising from relative obscurity in his early years, Curry won a second MVP award on the strength of his otherworldly play, and as he began to regularly surpass superstar Lebron James, his team seemed easily headed for more glory. But tonight Steph's team faces elimination from the NBA playoffs, brought on by an Oklahoma City Thunder team few thought would compete for a championship with a first-year coach and a star player possibly leaving the team after this year. Here is how it is happening.
posted by cashman
on May 26, 2016 -
74 comments

Remember back in late November when Kobe Bryant announced he was planning to retire at the end of the current NBA season? Perhaps not surprisingly, this caused a major spike in ticket prices to Lakers games on the secondary ticket market.
Luckily for Kobe fan Jesse Sandler, he anticipated ahead of time that this might be Kobe's final season, and on November 11th (18 days before the official announcement) purchased (4) tickets for him and some friends to attend the final Lakers home game of the season at a cost of $195 per ticket as opposed to the nearly $1500 per ticket that comparable seats were going for following the announcement. Or so he thought. As it turned out, Sandler was to later learn that "NO TICKETS YOU EVER BUY ON STUBHUB – EVER –ARE ACTUALLY YOUR TICKETS."
Through their twitter account, Stubhub acknowledged, "We shot an air ball on this one."
posted by The Gooch
on Jan 7, 2016 -
50 comments

"11 books, including memoir, history, detective fiction and juvenile novels; magazine articles published in everything from the socialist Jacobin to the resolutely Main Street Rotarian; a gig commenting on current events for TIME following a run as a pop culture columnist for The Huffington Post; two films about his life, including HBO’s forthcoming Kareem: A Minority of One; and appearances on shows such as Meet the Press, where he’ll pose questions such as, 'Why must peaceful Muslims like myself answer for violent perversions of that religion while their counterparts in other faiths get a pass?' After years of trying to break back into the NBA as a full-time assistant coach, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 68, has found both comfort and a calling as a man of letters and a public intellectual."
posted by overeducated_alligator
on Jul 20, 2015 -
9 comments

For 38-year-old Rubalcada, being at the M is a pleasing trip down memory lane, a visit to his primary workplace throughout 2010 and 2011. Back then, he had nearly $1 million in his account at the M. Dressed in slacks and a sport coat, he would saunter in and bet six figures a week on NFL and college games. He was, M Resort staffers say, one of the sportsbook's "bigger guys" -- a high roller who could afford to bet very, very big.

But he wasn't that at all.

In fact, Rubalcada was a faceless grunt in the most successful gambling enterprise of all time.

When I knew the Clippers were drafting me, the first thing I did was type Donald Sterling’s name into Google. The first hit that came up was “Donald Sterling is a racist.” I read an article on how he didn’t want minorities to live in his apartment buildings. My first thought was, Wow this guy is really, really a racist … how is he an owner of an NBA team? My second thought was, Wow, these articles are from 2003 and 2008. I guess everybody already knows about this stuff and just doesn’t care. As players, we’re not supposed to really care about anything but basketball. We’re just supposed to perform. To be honest, I didn’t ever really think about bringing up Sterling’s past. What was I supposed to do? Just picture me at the press conference my rookie year. “Uh … hey, guys, before we talk about today’s game, did you happen to see that investigative report on my owner?”
--
The Boss. An Essay about working for the NBA, by Blake Griffin.[more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue
on Oct 16, 2014 -
33 comments

Ever felt as though the ups and downs of the NBA playoffs and the chase for a ring is like an epic tale? Game of Thrones, NBA edition, part 1. [YouTube, 2:03] & Game of Thrones, NBA edition, part 2. [YouTube, 2:11]
posted by cashman
on Jun 13, 2014 -
10 comments

Bill Simmons, Grantland boss and 30 for 30 executive producer, went from a little known Boston blogger to one of the most successful sports writers in the history of American media. Rolling Stone's Rob Tannenbaum took a deeper look at Simmons.
posted by reenum
on May 1, 2014 -
14 comments

Harvey Araton wrote that basketball star Reggie Miller has "a mouth that can stretch as far as his jump shot range." He might be right. Once, in a game against the New York Knicks, Miller so taunted Knicks guard John Starks that Starks headbutted him. Starks was summarily ejected. That incident took place during Game 3 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals - a series New York would go on to win in 5 games. [more inside]
posted by kbanas
on Nov 18, 2010 -
46 comments

The Confessions of an NBA Scorekeeper Gawker's Tommy Craggs talks with an ex-scorekeeper for the Vancouver Grizzlies, and reveals the subjectivity of stat keeping in the NBA.
This guy once gave Nick Van Exel 23 assists just because he felt like it.
posted by reenum
on Dec 11, 2009 -
12 comments

There's an excellent twopart dialog between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell on ESPN's Page 2 this week. The two cover a wide variety of topics such as writing, how a kid with no TV from the middle of nowhere in Canada can be a sports fan, the NFL, the economics of sports, and everyone's favorite NBA GM Isiah Thomas.
posted by togdon
on Mar 3, 2006 -
13 comments

Shaqzilla dethroned. Shaquille O'Neal, who warned Chinese citizen & #1 draft pick Yao Ming to "Look Out, Shaqzilla is coming" (presumably unaware that Tokyo is not part of China), has been dethroned; currently in fan balloting, he is running a distant second to the rookie for starting center in the All Star game. Even though his numbers are effectively double those of Yao's, even though he's a three time NBA Finals MVP.
posted by jonson
on Jan 2, 2003 -
27 comments

Bona fide druggies in the NBA repeatedly gets caught not only breaking league rules, but the law. And like Lamar Odom, not much happens to these young men except they lose tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
My question: why have a drug policy in the NBA if you're not going to do much to punish them - especially the super talented, good-looking, nice ones like Odom?
posted by tsarfan
on Nov 5, 2001 -
10 comments

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